Many prior efforts have been made to dispense a small measured quantity of liquid from a large liquid container such as a bottle of detergent. These prior efforts have generally required, to fill a measuring reservoir, either tilting of a large bottle or squeezing of a bottle which although larger than the dispenser is usually hand-sized. In either case transportation of the large bottle to the place where the liquid is needed is required.
The measuring dispensers requiring large bottle tilting generally have a measuring cup integral with the bottle located in the top of the bottle. Representative of these structures is U.S. Pat. No. 3,396,875 issued to Finch on Aug. 13, 1968 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,859 issued to Jennings on Mar. 21, 1978. Other prior efforts have made the measuring cup which is filled by tilting the bottle removable from the bottle, but use screw attachment of the measuring cup to the liquid source bottle. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 3,254,809 issued to Breneman on June 7, 1966. Removal of the filled measuring reservoir by unscrewing is inconvenient and is not suggested by the Breneman reference.
The second way a measured quantity has been dispensed from a large liquid container such as a bottle is to use a hand graspable squeeze bottle. By squeezing the bottle a quantity of liquid exits up a dip tube into a top mounted measuring cup. Indicative of this approach are U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,768 issued to Britt on June 12, 1979 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,089,623 issued to Padzieski issued on May 14, 1963. In these patents the measuring cup described is attached to the bottle by a threaded connection. Again removal of the filled measuring reservoir by unscrewing is impractical. The bottle most conveniently is carried to the site of dispensing and the size of the bottle is limited.
Portability is not an aim of these prior efforts and where the measuring container is removable it is attached to the bottle by screw threads, and the measuring cup is not removed from the bottle in use. U.S. Pat. No. 3,100,068 issued to Kersten on Oct. 11, 1960 discloses a squeeze bottle connected to a source of liquid by means of an internally seated, ribbed, outlet valve 12 which plugs into a flexible liquid supply tube 14 and the dispenser 11. Thus, the squeeze dispenser, which has only one dispensing means, grippingly engages the liquid source container.
The prior art fails to teach a conveniently portable dispenser which allows easy removal from the supply of liquid for application of the liquid at the location where it is needed to avoid lugging a heavy bottle with the dispenser. Nor does the prior art teach such a device with means for dispensing a measured quantity of liquid in more than one way. This is desirable where, as with liquid laundry detergents, it is desirable to first use part of a measured volume of liquid in one way, such as to pretreat particularly soiled spots on clothing and then to dispense the remaining liquid in another way, such as to pour the remaining detergent into the washing machine load. Moreover no means is taught to allow selective dispensing which requires use of only one hand. Finally the prior art fails to teach a means which allows dispensing of a measured volume from a large container of liquid without tilting, lifting or squeezing the container. It is the objective of this invention to solve these deficiencies in past practice.